The prolonged shut-down of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in Southern California could mark an important turning point for the region’s electricity system. Distributed and demand-side resources offer a portfolio of solutions to help fill the near-term supply gap, while also advancing California’s long-term goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting local economic development and job creation. This discussion paper assesses the role the following distributed energy resources could play in the absence of SONGS: behavioral savings; demand response;
energy efficiency; solar photovoltaics; combined heat and power and fuel cells; storage. That paper includes information on what the potentials for these resources are, how their economics affect adoption, how much time it takes to install them, and how long we expect them to persist. We also offer recommendations to unlock these resources and encourage their adoption by utilities and their customers.

This document provides an overview of Reinventing Fire’s electricity sector analysis with a focus on the methodologies and inputs of NREL’s ReEDS and RMI’s dispatch model. The document is divided into two main sections. The first section provides a high-level overview of the ReEDS model and details of RMI’s assumptions that served as ReEDS inputs. Please note: This section relies heavily on NREL’s forthcoming documentation, Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS). This document will be updated when NREL makes its updated ReEDS documentation available. NREL’s documentation provides a detailed explanation of the ReEDS objective function, approach, algorithms, and common assumptions, including important information regarding generation and demand resource inputs, such as renewable resource potential. RMI’s documentation details key inputs or variables that differ from those described in NREL’s own documentation of ReEDS. The second section documents RMI’s dispatch model.

This paper explores how effectively the United States has used electricity and compares energy efficiency implementation by state. This paper analyzes state-level electric productivity to determine which states are the most productive with their electricity.

There is an enormous gap in the electric productivity of the nation. Increasing industrial electric productivity is a significant near-term opportunity that can reduce electricity costs, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of output, and increase profits. RMI believes that increasing industrial electric productivity is an untapped source of value, and is important to the longevity of industry in the United States.

This paper reports on the complex issues surrounding multi-tenant developments by analyzing current industry practices and the perceived hurdles associated with them. Key financial benefits of high-performance multi-tenant buildings are presented. A selection of structural solutions that distribute these financial benefits to tenants and owners so as to accelerate the adoption of high-performance building in the multi-tenant industry is provided.

In August, 2003 the American electrical grid failed and caused blackouts throughout the country. Amory Lovins wrote this article in response to that energy catastrophe. He argues that the cause of the blackouts was an overcentralized power grid and inefficient pricing policies. Lovins claims that the fastest and cheapest way to save energy dollars and pollution is to use energy efficiently. In addition to efficiency measures, electric utilities and customers can make use of demand response technology to save energy and lower the burden on the grid. Distributed (or decentralized) generation is another option that Lovins argues can reduce the likelihood of grid failures so that blackouts do not occur again.

This paper argues for the adoption of fuel cell technology by the electric power industry. Fuel cells convert fuel to electricity at high efficiency without combustion and with negligible emissions. The author claims that fuel cell technology is one of the most promising distributed generation options. Fuel cell technology can be implemented in the electric power industry when the economic benefits of distributed generation are recognized and captured in the electricity market. The author describes the market for fuel cells and the changing trends in the electricity industry. The author provides several case studies of the successful use of fuel cells.

This exchange between Amory Lovins and William Tucker was published in The Weekly Standard after Tucker's earlier article in the magazine. Lovins' letters refute Tucker's claims about the causes of California's electricity crisis, the reliability of renewables, and the use of hydrogen energy systems.

A similar exchange, published in American Spectator, is also available.

In this lecture to the Commonwealth Club, Amory Lovins discusses the causes of the electricity crisis in California in the late 1990s. He dispels some rumors about the causes of the crisis. Lovins argues that the electricity crisis was caused by a singularly botched restructuring in which there was competition to generate and not save, no price signal to users, and no bid competition by efficiency. Furthermore, there was excessively concentrated market power among the electric utilities. The lectures ends with a question and answer session in which Lovins answers questions about energy efficiency and renewable energy.

In this presentation to the Worldwatch Institute, Amory Lovins revisits the issue of the electricity crisis in California in the late 1990s. The presentation brings up alleged causes of the crisis, which Lovins dispels. He presents evidence that the crisis was caused by, among other things, ineffective restructuring of electric utilities, anti-competitive practices, and spikes in natural gas prices. He concludes by specifying lessons that should be learned from the situation: markets produce surprises, but don’t serve the public without rules; efficiency remains the biggest opportunity; boom-bust cycles are costly and unnecessary; demand is not fate but choice; and demand is extremely flexible and fast.